Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Wells of Refreshment: Isaiah 12

Isaiah 12 You1 will say uin that day:“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,for though you were angry with me,vyour anger turned away,that you might comfort me.2 “Behold, God is my salvation;I will trust, and will not be afraid;for wthe LordGod2 is my strength and my song,and he has become my salvation.”3 xWith joy you3 will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 yAnd you will say in that day:z“Give thanks to the Lord,call upon his name,amake known his deeds among the peoples,proclaim bthat his name is exalted.5 c“Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;let this be made known4 in all the earth.6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,for great din your5 midst is ethe Holy One of Israel.”

What can I say about the Book of Isaiah? It is supernatural refreshment- the most anointed book in the Bible in my humble opinion. I have written extensively from Isaiah (example here) and I always refer to Ray Ortlund's commentary on this book. It is the best Bible commentary I have ever read.

Here is an example of what the entire commentary is like:

"Self salvation makes a lot of sense, until you try it. No one anywhere, even under ideal conditions, has ever figured out how to live well without God... even if you are (on a beautiful beach or resort) you will still need God. And being there without God would be hell. And being here, or anywhere with God can be heaven.""Never outgrow the humility of brokenness before God. In becoming a Christian, you admit that your whole life has been wrong. As you grow in Christ, never leave that realism behind. Your failure is God's opportunity. Your sin is God's moment.""The crisis of life is over. We find rest, not because we can cope with our attackers but because we are at peace with God.""And that startling sense of our acceptance in Christ is how we become the trusting people we should be, the broken people we should be, and the renewed people we should be. That's when nothing can hold us back from the newness of life, not even our own second-rate repentance."

So this passage is easy for me to write about- God is beautifully good, I am so thankful for that, I need to be MORE obedient in proclaiming that.

And this is not theory... I HAVE EXPERIENCED HIS GOODNESS FIRSTHAND.

GOOD WHEN I AM BAD:

Verse 1 is a story... God was mad, but His anger turned away and He comforted me.

I don't know why people get upset at an angry God. His is a righteous anger. He is not petty. I know I grieve the Holy Spirit. I know I sin. I know when I drop the ball.

But He forgives over and over and over and over- I LOVE verse 3:

With joy you will draw water from wells of salvation.

These are DEEP wells of grace.

Make known His deeds.... SING praises to Him. These are appropriate responses of worship.

And the hope in Him is so positive:

In this short passage we have-

Double joy and double thanks.

Can we just pause right now and thank Him for a glorious salvation based on His forgiveness?